• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer

submissions reopen june 1

Shō Poetry Journal

Established in 2002, revived in 2023

  • Read a Poem
  • Listen
    • Shō Number Six
    • Shō Number Five
    • Shō Number Four
    • Shō Number Three
    • Pride Month Playlist #1 (2024)
    • Black History Month Playlist (2025)
    • Women’s History Month RoundUp 2025
    • Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month Roundup 2025
  • Interviews
    • A Conversation with Arah Ko
    • A Conversation with Nathan Xavier Osorio
  • Buy
  • About
    • Mission Statement
    • Our Story
    • Masthead
    • Accolades
    • Nominations
    • Contact
  • Shō Family
    • Contributors
    • Contributors (by issue)
    • Cover Art
    • Books from Shō No. 3 Poets
  • Submit
    • Submissions
    • The Sita Martin Prize
    • The Shō Poetry Prize
    • Prize Winners
  • Donate
  • Cart

audio

A white woman wearing a patterned burgundy dress and a thin cream-colored sweater. Her hands are clasped in her lap.

Audio Feature: Melissa Fite Johnson

Nov 21, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

We’re all something else / to someone else. Maybe he became better, a person / who hated sharing a body with the person he used to be.

Audio Feature: Laura Villareal

Nov 14, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

the turkeys arrive while I’m deciphering / the if this, then that of taxes.

Color photograph of the author, Kathryn Bratt-Pfotenhauer, a white person with shoulder length curly red-blonde hair and green eyes. She wears purple eyeshadow, dark purple lipstick, pink hoop earrings and a partially visible black and purple New York University t-shirt; her hands are in her hair.

Audio Feature: Kathryn Bratt-Pfotenhauer

Nov 10, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

"I was thinking a lot about human mortality and environmental catastrophe, and how we all are momentary in the world"

Person in a blue and white striped shirt stands outside with trees and steps in the background

Audio Feature: Chiagoziem Jideofor (Shō No. 5)

Nov 7, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

a name is a pillar. a name is a post.

Person wearing a three-quarter sleeve fitting black scoop neck shirt. They have long glossy black hair and tattoos.

Audio Feature: Faith Gómez Clark

Nov 1, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

After her death, she returns to me as a black goat.

Asian femme seated in a teal-colored velvet chair by a sunny window. She has long black hair in gentle waves and wears a green tunic with golden embellishments over yellow pants.

Audio Feature: Sophia Terazawa

Oct 24, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

One / becomes my aunt. Enter AUNT in wide / angle shots. Flickers form infinite / possibilities cast on that screen.

The poet stands on a city street in daylight. She has long black wavy hair, wears a deep reddish-brown sleeveless shirt, and smiles at the camera.

Audio Feature: Kuhu Joshi (Shō No. 5)

Oct 20, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

Look – I undo the body / you made for me.

Poet Rebekah Wolman

Audio Feature: Rebekah Wolman (Shō No. 5)

Oct 20, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

as abecedarian. Beehive. Corner cabinet, desk / detritus. Earthshine. Faultline. As gristle and gall.

Poet Mollie O'Leary

Audio Feature: Mollie O’Leary

Oct 7, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

It’s true—the scene is charged / with a heat surpassing what I endured to arrive here.

Poet Luke Johnson

Audio Feature: Luke Johnson (Shō No. 3)

Sep 23, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

“This poem is one of many calls and/or responses to the poet Megan Merchant. Our co-authored collection A Slow Indwelling comes out Fall 2024 from Harbor Editions and deals with a father and mother wrestling through cultural violence, the fragility of childhood, the preciousness of a parents love, and the beauty and pain expressed through the natural world.”

Poet Megan Merchant

Audio Feature: Megan Merchant (Shō No. 3)

Sep 22, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

This poem is part of a larger epistolary exchange, "A Slow Indwelling", with Luke Johnson, and will be published this fall with Harbor Editions.

A person in a black blazer sits in a soft window light, their chin resting on their left hand while gazing out the window.

Audio Feature: Jeddie Sophronius (Shō No. 5)

Sep 22, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

I’m more broken than I’ve ever been. / This shell of a body, emptied / and longing.

Poet Arah Ko

Audio Feature: Arah Ko (Shō No. 4)

Sep 17, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

These trees war scalded from the mountains, burnt stubble, replanted when my father was a child, now tall again.

Poet Donna Vorreyer

Audio Feature: Donna Vorreyer (Shō No. 5)

Sep 16, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

The last night with my mother, I blinded like a snake in the blue, /
shed the skin of daughter and switched roles

Audio Feature: Eylie Sasajima (Shō No. 4)

Sep 5, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

i am here with you by the premade sushi. / by the out-of-season strawberries. / by the tofu.

Poet Mckendy Fils-Aimé

Audio Feature: Mckendy Fils-Aimé (Shō No. 5)

Aug 26, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

we stumble through a forest / of awkward silences, careful not to touch // the brambles.

Poet Nyree Abrahamian

Audio Feature: Nyree Abrahamian (Shō No. 5)

Aug 7, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

I can think of a few things more entrenched, / like language, syllables strung together // in a lilt

Poet Corey Baron

Audio Feature: Corey Baron (Shō No. 5)

Jul 29, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

After all, what way is there to leave / a dance floor other than wet // & shaking under a mass of pleading / legs all huddled into a single moving // sacrifice—swaying tall & drowning / in bass?

Audio Feature: Jessica Nirvana Ram (Shō No. 5)

Jul 23, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

The days have been heavy lately, /
an albatross on each shoulder

Audio Feature: Nathan Xavier Osorio (Shō No. 4)

Jul 12, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

My mother fell in love with the way you cracked / into an urchin.

Poet Lana Matthews Sain looks off to the side. She has long black hair with grey streaks and wears a sleeveless light blue/grey shirt with a short ruffled collar.

Audio Feature: Lana Matthews Sain (Shō No. 4)

Jul 3, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

I smelled like churned earth, breasts bouldered and leaked / through my support bra into my shirt / for days after his deathbirth.

Pride Month Playlist ’24

Jun 28, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal
Eben Bein has short hair and smiles into the camera. They wear a black tshirt that says "Our Climate."

Audio Feature: Eben E. B. Bein (Shō No. 4)

Jun 28, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

Mom, since we stopped / speaking, I've been searching / for the first word / you gave me.

Poet Andrew Payton

Audio Feature: Andrew Payton (Shō No. 3)

Jun 26, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

My father came to this country / through the womb. My mother, too. // Their mothers and their fathers, too. / But somewhere behind them: a crossing.

  • Previous
  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Next

Publishing Stats

Since our revival issue was published in Summer 2023:

260

Poems Published

170

Total Poets Published

62

Audio Features Published

28

Poems Nominated for Prizes

1

Poem chosen for inclusion in Best Spiritual Literature

Shō Poetry Journal


is a proud member of the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses.

Our Story
Masthead
Accolades
Donate
Contact
Submit
FAQ
Newsletter

  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Bluesky

Copyright © 2025 · Shō Poetry Journal · All Rights Reserved

Privacy policy

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok